Announcement
Boys soccer teams hit hard by graduation
This is something of an in-between season for Southern Tier Athletic Conference West boys soccer. A lot of talented players from last year were lost to graduation, leaving mostly inexperienced lineups.
"Quite honestly, this year you're looking at a lot of younger players on the four STAC West teams," said longtime Horseheads coach Curt Grottenthaler, whose team has only six seniors and three returning starters. "It's just a matter of those kids beginning to jell, playing as a team. As always, what we want to do is be successful as a group of four teams."
Grottenthaler was specifically talking about success against the more experienced STAC Metro teams: Vestal, Union-Endicott, Binghamton and Ithaca.
Even with so many youngsters, that doesn't mean they won't grasp their time to shine. Several players from the successful Elmira Free Academy program have moved on to play college soccer. They'll likely have plenty of company from current STAC West players in the next few years.
"The division as a whole is very young this year, which says a lot for the future of the STAC West because it was one of the stronger divisions last year," EFA head coach Derek Hamilton said.
He added, "The division is up for grabs. The four teams are young and any team can beat anybody on any given day. There's no clear-cut favorite."
A look at the teams:
Corning
•Coach: Chad Freelove (fourth year)
•Last year's record: 7-8-2.
•Key returners: senior goalie Craig Allen (third year on varsity), senior forward George Baity (fourth year on varsity), junior midfielder Nick Jakobson.
•Key newcomers: sophomore central midfielder Sam Schirmer, who was voted a team captain; junior forward Anthony Pavlick; junior midfielder Jesse Martinez; junior midfielder Andrew Ortiz; junior defender Caleb Noel; senior defender Kyle Madsen, who missed most of last season after suffering a dislocated kneecap; sophomore midfielder Zach Dann; junior midfielder Tyler Lucero.
•Coach's outlook: "Our goal is to be playing our best soccer by the end of the season -- growing and bonding together with the idea that we want to be successful at the end of the season. We've already shown glimpses of very good soccer."
Elmira Free Academy
•Coach: Derek Hamilton (fourth year)
•Last year's record: 13-5-1 (lost to Owego in Section 4 Class A finals).
•Key returners: junior midfielder Ross Holden; senior midfielder Paul Bradley; senior defender Mike McGinnis (STAC all-conference pick last season), senior forward Frankie Mannino (STAC West all-star last year), sophomore defender Nick Lian; senior midfielder Tommy Hornbuckle; junior midfielder Charlie Anderson.
•Key newcomers: senior midfielder Matt Praino (transfer from Horseheads); sophomore defender Kevin Kucharski, junior midfielder Denzel Harris; junior goalie Brian Poppleton; sophomore midfielder Kail Burfield; sophomore defender Jake Davenport.
•Coach's outlook: "It was good to see the program put so many players into college playing at the next level. But every time you do, you have to kind of reload. This year's team is very young. We have four 10th-graders up and only four senior starters. It's a talented group, but we're sure to go through some rough spots because of on-field maturity.
"I think the key with a younger group is to address the negatives, correct them, and build off the positives."
Horseheads
•Coach: Curt Grottenthaler (12th season)
•Last year's record: 7-5-7 (5-1-1 over final seven games).
•Key returners: senior midfielder Eric Vavrasek; senior midfielder Eric Burdette; junior midfielder Tyler Nolan; senior midfielder Kyle Rivera; senior defender Rob Brennan.
•Coach's outlook: "My biggest thing is to have them break it into two seasons. The first half of the season to get up to the speed of the varsity game and learn their roles on the field. The second half of the season to win those games that they should have won in the first half but lost because they made mental errors or small mistakes. It's definitely important to improve every game."
Southside
•Coach: Steve Mastronardi (eighth year)
•Last year's record: 0-14-2.
•Key returners: Mike Weaver, Steven Adams, Roger Staples, Josh Batten, Jonathan LaDouce, Sam Carpenter.
•Key newcomers: Joe Bates, Chris Jones, Ryan Murphy.
•Coach's outlook: "Still in the rebuilding phase for the program, but if the team is mentally prepared and focused we should be able to compete with most teams."
